Day One

Due to the cricket, the team were up very early this morning and ready to walk with packed-lunch, water-proof gear and various navigational tools by 9.00. The weather forecast was fairly depressing and a drive through the Lakes yesterday had shown there to be a lot of snow on the hills. Therefore, a plan was formed to include smaller fells than had been previously planned.

A drizzly drive to Orthwaite did little to dampen our spirits and we set off along Horsemoor Hills farm road at approximately 10.30. A stroll along a bridleway quickly took us up Great Cockup (1720 ft) (you in the back row, stop giggling!) and into the cloud.

Undaunted, we took a quick picture and headed down to Trusmadoor and then up to Meal Fell (1770 ft). Walking down to the col there were some intimidating views and our perspective was surprisingly affected by the snow on the mountains ahead. However, the climb up to the summit was not nearly as hard as it had looked from the bottom.

Another picture was taken and then there was a long slog up onto Great Sca Fell (2131 ft). The steepness of the ascent and the thick cover of snow over the 'path' made this slightly taxing on the calves but we pushed on without stopping for breath. We were chuffed to see that we had reached the summit by 12.05.

By this time it was clear that the weather man had lied when he had said that the wind-chill would be 'insignificant': it was freezing! Therefore, there was no time for a break, instead we made a beeline for Knott (2329 ft).

Again, this seemed to take us a lot less time than expected and we decided that we had plenty of time left to go on to Great Calva (2265 ft). As there was still no sign of the cloud lifting we had to use the compass in order to determine the correct direction and, miraculously, we were spot on. We followed a fence up to the top and were once again a bit troubled by thick snow on the path on the way to the summit.

My brand new walking pole was put to great use on the way down as we were freezing and wanted to get down as quickly as possible. We picked up the path down Hause Gill which proved to be a bit tricky to begin with but we were soon making good time down past Burn Tod. We finally ate our sandwiches by a lovely little stream and washed them down with some tasty hot squash and then worked them off by making a good pace down to the car. We were back there by 2.40.

Total distance of 9.75 miles and 2460 feet of ascent.

New Fells: Great Cockup, Meal Fell and Great Calva.